Spanda

A collaboration between the WAAPA’s award-winning Defying Gravity percussion ensemble and Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya (SMV) that will create a new world of sound - where sparkling rhythms and seductive melodies mix with an astonishing array of percussion instruments from around the globe. Defying Gravity is one of Australia's longest-established and most active new music ensembles. Defying Gravity tours nationally and internationally, commissions and performs new music, records and broadcasts for ABC Classic FM, and sells out all of its major series concerts in WA. Directed by Tim White (WASO's Principal Percussionist for 28 years), Defying Gravity has played at the Percussive Arts Society's International Convention in the USA, performed throughout Australia, and featured at the 2011 CHOGM Opening Ceremony. Defying Gravity’s performances combine exotic timbres with melodic beauty and the overwhelming power of rhythm - plus all the fun of 'Stomp'!"

Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya (SMV) was established by our founder the late Swami Shantanand Saraswati (Swamiji) to expand the scope of the Temple of Fine Arts (TFA) to promote art and culture in various forms, and knowledge in general, with the same ethos of ‘art for art's sake’ and service to the community through the arts and culture.

Since 1981, TFA had been instrumental in spreading Indian art and culture by organising festivals and producing and presenting world-renowned Indian artistes in performance and workshop structures. SMV has taken up this mantle, and offers classes performing arts, in the dance styles of Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak, folk and Bollywood, and music classes in Carnatic (South Indian) vocal, veena, tabla, sarod, harmonium, piano and guitar. Expanding in its capacity, it has also been running classes in visual art, languages, and Indian and Asian vegetarian cooking, including cooking classes for the visually impaired.

SMV has also organised and hosted many events around Perth, such as Swan Festival of Lights and Culture Box at Beaufort and concerts by world-class artistes like Pandit Kumar Bose, Pandit Birju Maharaj and Dr. L Subramaniam and extending into intercultural exchange with artists like African/American dancer and choreographer Olivier Tarpaga.

As part of SMV’s dedication to promote harmony through culture, SMV has worked with various cultural groups to produce collaborative works, as well as providing studio space for other cultural groups and artistes to conduct their classes. Its black box theatre is also an official venue for events such as the Fringe World Festival.